Slavery in the fast fashion industry

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Sales. Discounts. Coupons. Oh, just one more pair of shoes. But this jacket is so cute, isn’t it? I know, I have 3 already, but these are from last year, I need another bikini for this holiday. Ok, a very last skirt for the season. Made in China, India, Pakistan.

Sounds familiar? Yes. It does, for almost all of us.

Source: upliftconnect.com

The prices of clothes are steadily decreasing, in some cases, they are cheap enough to buy, even if they are going to be worn only once. But who pays the real price of these items?

Of course, the third-world country workers, who don’t have to any option other than accepting the 3$ per day salary provided by western companies. 

Some fast fashion companies, however, are reassuring their own and consumers’ conscience that in these countries they offer relatively the least dangerous job since seamstressing does not seem to be a high-risk activity.

Fair enough, but if we look closely at the circumstances in these factories, we can see that thousands of people risk their lives every day for us, so we can wear different clothes for every occasion.

Maybe some of you remember the tragedy which happened in Bangladesh, in 2013 when a huge factory (where Zara, Gap and Marks & Spencer had their clothing manufactured by locals, among other companies) collapsed and killed more than 500 people.

Unfortunately, this tragedy was still not enough to open the eyes of the world. Online and offline news, newspapers and magazines published it, people were talking about it for a few days, maybe weeks. And then? Everything went on and no significant step or change has been implemented since then, to improve the situation of workers.

Source: america.aljazeera.com

Luckily, there are brands in the fashion world that are trying to change this situation and make sure that their products are manufactured in decent conditions and by fairly paid employees.

Besides that, the online media became involved in raising awareness of the problem:

„The fashion industry is one of the biggest supporters of modern slavery across the globe.”

„A new report says the fashion industry is fueling modern slavery.”

„Modern Day Slavery in the Fashion Industry”

Only a few articles that have recently published on the subject. Please, try to get more information on the subject and think about how you could help to reduce the exploitation of people in developing countries


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